Tag: winter

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The Gardener in Winter

Seven years ago today, I started this blog. I just went back and reread the first entry, and I see that I haven’t changed much, and the blog hasn’t changed much. Anyway, that’s how it seems, but time has passed and, in truth, things have changed. Jonathan and I are both retired now. The cats are a little different, but the universal cat distribution system sees to it that we maintain a minimum of two. I still garden, and I still write, although this winter has been harder than usual for both of those.

In the winter, I am usually hopeful about writing and gardening. To chase away the winter malaise, this year I haven’t waited for seed catalogs to get me started–I’m sprouting seeds for fresh greens to put into salads and stir fries and onto sandwiches. This winter I took all the old, sad onion sets left over from the spring and put them into dirt. They are sitting in a sunny window and growing very nicely. Fresh green onions are imminent. I planted some microgreens, but they were a bit of a disappointment, so I followed them with a salad green mixture. The seeds have sprouted and are on their way to something fresh and tasty (I hope). I’ve also already started (yes, I know it’s January, but nevertheless) leeks and onions from seeds. Leeks take forever to grow so I thought I might as well begin as early as possible. I would have started chard, too, but I’m out of chard seeds. Time to check that seed catalog I got in the mail last week.

I have my Old Farmer’s Almanac and have laid out the planting days for everything I intend to put into the ground. I have a blueprint of how I want my beds to look. But I’m not stopping at growing things in dirt. My good friend, yeast, has done me proud by growing away nicely and giving me a lovely loaf of bread. As an experiment, I made my first batch of yogurt from non-fat dried milk. In spite of my slovenly approach to this imprecise art, I managed to end up with a pretty tasty pint of Greek non-fat yogurt. I advised my husband that, if eight hours after I ate it, he found me cold and unresponsive, to toss the experiment. So far so good. My next  endeavor is going to be making cheese out of the same starting material–non-fat dried milk is indestructible, but also, almost inedible. We’ll see how that goes.

What about writing over the past seven years, you may ask. I’ve completed two more novels and am well on my way to a fourth. One has been sent to a publisher, the other was nibbled at but ultimately passed over by another publisher. It’s out to a new place now, so fingers crossed. A few short stories have been rejected and accepted, but the later are for anthologies, and those take FOREVER to get published. I’ve given some interviews and done some book signings.  And I’ve served as editor for several books, all published now. Finally, I’ve just been asked to help a friend write her autobiography. That will be new territory for me.

We’ll see what the next seven years hold, if I make it that long. I plan to. No matter what happens,  I’ll  keep writing and gardening. But maybe not all the time every day. I have to take some time out to hang with the cats and husband.

Image: Bread, yogurt, and sprouts. By Marilyn Evans

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In the Dark

I haven’t been able to write for a while. You may have noticed. Or not. I’ve been in the dark–the dark of winter, the dark of the pandemic, the dark night of the soul.

Winter has come with too little rain or snow, too much cold, too few encounters with my fellow humans. Over three hundred thousand people have died from the pandemic. My husband and I are refusing invitations, trying to be safe, trying to be responsible, though we so want to see our family and friends. The holidays should make it brighter, but this is the first Yule season without my good friend who was killed in the spring.

And I’ve been wondering about writing. Do I even like writing? Writers say they write because they have to. I don’t really have to. Anyway, it doesn’t seem like I have to. Am I really any good at it? Should I even be bothering? I had planned to work hard in November, but more than a week into December I still couldn’t get started. Is it time to just stop?

Still, in the darkness of this season of festivals of light, it’s not so very dark. I’ve sent cards and cookies and gifts, called people, stayed in touch by social media. I’ve gotten through my Buffy the Vampire Slayer binge watch, and it wasn’t as dark as I remembered it. I’ve been working my way through all my gardening books, because it will be spring again some day. There is a vaccine for the virus, and it’s already in use.

And the writing? I get a regular newsletter that has calls for submissions. One of my stories seemed like a good fit for a call. It was ultimately rejected, but had made it all the way to the final round. I got the nicest rejection letter I’ve ever had.That encouraged me to send it out again. Another one of the magazines, published four times a year, uses the same opening line for all the stories in that issue. The February issue’s opening line intrigued me. I wrote a story. I polished it, adjusted it, sent it to a friend for review, polished some more and sent it off. It was fun. I enjoyed the writing and the editing and the submission process. It might get rejected, but maybe, just maybe, I’m not done writing quite yet.

Maybe the darkness is lifting. We’ll see where I stand a week or two after the Solstice. I bet the world will be just a little bit lighter.

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Writing and waiting for the seed catalogs

The folks replacing the water lines on our block are taking a day off. I suspect it’s due to the black ice on the streets and the wrecks all over Kansas City. My husband is working from home so there’s one less thing to worry about. The cats are snoozing, thankfully not on the keyboard. I’m wrapped in a blanket, sitting at my computer, and trying to figure out how to blog.

They tell me all authors need to blog these days. I’m game. I’m always happy to talk about myself–no false modesty here. Problem is I’m a bit of a Luddite. Still, I’ve managed to get a book published, or so they tell me. It was all done electronically, so I think it went through as expected. I’ve seen the Amazon page for ordering it and told all my friends, hoping they’ll tell their friends. I haven’t actually held a copy in my hands yet, but that’s coming. I hope.

I take a lot of things on faith. I assume my editor is going to pay me. I assume what I write will be read by someone. That’s why Facebook is good for me: I get a thumbs up or comment that indicates what I sent into the ether was read. But even if I got no feedback, I’d still write. It’s a sort of disease. Or obsession. Or hopeful dream.

I write the way I plant seeds. Seeds look like dead things, dry and lifeless, but they do contain life. I plant them and wait, taking it on faith that something will happen. When the green shoots start coming out of the ground I never quite believe it’s real, never quite believe that dead thing I planted has become this tender plant that will grow into flower and fruit. It always seems like a small miracle.

When I write, I begin with an idea. Oddly, the title often comes first. As I write, I add, discard, embellish, strip, and rearrange words, thoughts and ideas. I give the preliminary mess to friends who nod sagely and hold their peace. Sometimes they make helpful suggestions, but relying on my friends for constructive feedback is sort of unfair. They are my friends. They kind of have to be nice to me. Some might be brutally honest, but that’s not the way to bet.

I like writer’s groups, but good ones are hard to find, and sometimes don’t last long.  I’ve had the great, good luck to take some writing classes with writers and teachers who have helped me tremendously, but in the end, I have to be my own harshest critic, exceeded only in harshness by my editor, and I have to have done the hard work before she ever sees it. It’s not unlike the hard work that goes into preparing the soil in the autumn and the early spring before the seeds go into the ground. Even after the green things break through the soil, the flower and fruit is a long way off. Like watering and weeding, there  is more editing, proofing, and all the rest of the attention that is required to get to the harvest.

I haven’t made it to the harvest yet. I still have to promote the book, try to arrange signings, and maybe give some interviews, if I’m lucky. And blog. They tell me I must blog. We’ll see how that goes. I suspect I’m going to have fun doing it, and I take it on faith that someone somewhere will read what I write.